Vouliagmeni completed Greece’s domination of European women’s water polo by lifting the Champions Cup on Corfu on Saturday.
The southern Athens side came from behind in the final to beat Russia’s Kinev Kirishi 10-7 and win the trophy for the second successive time.
Kinev were the better team in the first half as Vouliagmeni’s attacks were quite hurried, allowing the Russians to lead 4-3 at the halfway point.
The team from Kirishi went on to lead 6-4 during the third period, but that was when Vouliagmeni changed gear and started dominating the game.
Just like they had done in the semifinal against Catania on Friday when they turned a 5-3 deficit to a 9-5 advantage, Vouliagmeni scored five unanswered goals to lead 9-6 with three minutes left.
Kinev were totally overwhelmed and had no solutions in attack as the Greek defence was impenetrable for most of the second half.
The minutes ticked away, with Vouliagmeni’s Yiouli Lara sprinting to the corner in the dying seconds playing with the ball as if she was playing volleyball.
“As they say, it is more important to stay on top than to get to it,” said Lara after the game.
Alexia Kammenou, Vouliagmeni’s coach was full of praise for her European champions.
“They are superb athletes and it is a blessing for a coach to have such great players. In such games it is natural to be nervous, we knew we would be.
“We waited for the point of the game where we would turn from defensive to offensive and our tactics paid off.
“I am very happy that we and Ethnikos have won the two European trophies and we will contest the European Super Cup.
“It is all thanks to the love of some people for the game. We would expect now some more interest in our game from the authorities,” she said.
In the 3rd-place play-off Olympiakos lost to Italy’s Orizzonte Catania 13-12 to settle for the fourth spot.